Re: Just bought, am I getting a fair deal? Apex/Honeywell/Monitronics

["alarman" <alarman2000@xxxxxxxxx>]

Danny Kewl wrote:
> Hi, I just bought a Apex/Honeywell/Monitronics alarm system last
> Thursday evening (5/19/05) from a door to door salesperson. I believe
> Apex is the middleman selling the systems. The alarm system was
> installed that evening also. I just bought my house about a year ago,
> and it already had a control panel for an ADT system, but I never had
> it connected to a monitoring service. I took them up on their offer,
> as I was meaning to get some kind of security system going here, and
> kept procrastinating, and felt if I didn't go for it, I'd
> procrastinate more and never get a system going, and be unprotected
> in a Cleveland, Ohio neighborhood that's just starting to become a
> little rough.
>
> What they said is they install free equipment, based on a point
> system, and I'm allowed 6 points, each item chosen worth one point. I
> have a small bungalow style house, so I got one wireless glass
> breakage detector (was told it will detect to a 25 foot plus radius),
> one wireless motion detector, one wireless smoke alarm, and there
> were already two door sensors from the last system that they counted
> as one point each I believe (front door and side door), and a key fob
> for a point. I was told 6 points were worth about seven or eight
> hundred dollars of equipment that they installed free, but looking at
> this now, I already had the two door sensors. I was told window
> sensors were unnecessary as I just had new vinyl replacement windows
> installed a month ago, and was told on the newer ones, they are
> impossible to open from the outside without breaking the glass, which
> the breakage detector would pick up.
>
> I don't have traditional wired landline phone service, I use only my
> cell phone always. They told me I would have to use their cellular
> back-up network in this case, which is $42.99 a month, $3 more than
> if I used their landline service. I tried searching the Net to see if
> I am getting a good, or at least a fair deal. My contract is for
> three years. I could not find anything that lists what companies
> charge for monitoring, however I know I'm probably at a disadvantage
> with some companies not having a landline. All the sites want you to
> sign up first, I'm sure that's the way it would work with calling
> them also. I did find a site just now ( http://www.policealarm.com/ )
> that says they monitor starting $2.95 a month, but my old control
> box, etc. has been taken out and the Monitronics installed, plus a
> new box in the basement, whatever that is, with all the wires, etc.
>
> I signed up Thursday evening about 7 PM EST, and since the weekend was
> coming up, the salesperson told me I had 5 days to change my mind and
> cancel the contract instead of the usual 3 days. This is about up,
> and I don't want to cancel a good deal if I do have one, and have to
> start from scratch looking for a security provider, etc. and maybe,
> again, never get it done. On the other hand, if it does not sound
> like a good/fair deal what I got, what are my options to negotiate?
> Thanks much in advance.

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js